Before I get another glass of tea

[cleolinda]

My mother and I cannot think of anything that she would actually want to see on Sunday. Flushed Away? “NO.” Apparently, despite the fact that she loved Finding Nemo, my mother has finally outgrown animation (it is so animation! Materials are given animation in some fashion!) and will not see them because all the other moms might laugh at her, or... something. But it does have Hugh Jackman! “Only his VOICE!” Okay, simmer down there. The Departed? “Ew, that’s too violent.” The Prestige again? “I’m not paying to see that twice! We’ll get the DVD.” Well, you don’t want to see The Queen, and Borat and Saw III are right out. You tell me--what’s left? My mother heaves the sigh of a martyr: “We may just have to go see MARIE ANTOINETTE.” GASP.

Meanwhile, I worked on my NaNo some more, and while I was washing my hair, I actually thought of the end of the story. Now, those of you who have read any of my previous literary natterings may know that I always come up with a beginning and an ending, possibly not even in that order, before I try to connect the two with this, how do you say, plot in the middle. So I knew the literal ending of the story--who lives, who dies, whatever. But I wasn't happy with the final paragraph. I'm a big fan of what I call "sticking the landing"--ending on some image or paragraph or phrase that not only feels final, but has some kind of thematic significance or somehow blows the reader's mind in some small way. You know how people will flip to the end of the book first, and mostly it doesn't do any good because it's all dénouement that doesn't mean anything if you didn't get there honestly? Well, I am one of the few writers who might actually put a major (okay, at least a minor) revelation in the last sentence. Daniel Handler does this beautifully in the last Lemony Snicket book; JK Rowling has said she's long known what the last word of the last Harry Potter book would be. I won't say what it is lest someone keel over dead from spoiler, but it's pretty widely known if you want to look it up. So it was a big thing for me to finally realize what the last paragraph of this story should be, because it was like I'd poured the foundation for the story: I knew exactly what I would be building on.

Internet auction for prayer letters canceled; God puts up smiting rod. For now.

From coast to coast, people are lining up to answer the prayers of members of a northern New Jersey congregation whose pleas apparently went unheard when their letters to God were dumped in the Atlantic Ocean. And the New Jersey fisherman who found them bobbing in the surf canceled an Internet auction for them on Friday after seeing how sincere the interest was among the faithful who want to make sure that someone finally hears each request.

"The religious folks are coming out of the woodwork," said Bill Lacovara, a Ventnor insurance adjuster who found the letters on the beach in Atlantic City last month while fishing with his son. "It's been non-stop: a pastor in Texas, one from Colorado, another from somewhere in the midwest. One guy said he wants to write a play about this."

Of the 300 or so letters he found in the surf, Lacovara offered about half of them for sale on eBay, thinking that at most he'd make a few dollars and take his family out to dinner. But when more than 25 bidders pushed the price over $550 in less than 24 hours, he knew things were getting out of hand, and canceled the auction. "It was never my intent to make a lot of money off this," he said. "If it went over $100 or so, we were going to donate it to charity."

(Thanks, bluebren.)

Titanic's success bittersweet to Winslet. Aww--she doesn't even spout the usual "It made me a big star and there were downsides to that" stuff; it was bittersweet because her first love died the week it came out.

Dali framed for "Surreal" movie. I do not think this word "framed" means what they think it means.

particle_person brings us a link from Making Light: Rumsfeld to hire internet sockpuppets.

Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets. (New York Times)

If Rumsfeld thinks he can handle it, well--man, have I got a recommendation for him.

Headstone found at Dickinson home. "What do you do with a used gravestone?"

Oh, Radcakes. Build a bunker now.

Neil Patrick Harris says he is gay. Wait, this is news?

jasminelily: "Totally off topic, but it would be great if you could drop a few wordsin your next linkspan (if it's before or on Nov. 7) about 866 OUR VOTE. It's a nation wide free phone number that people can call with any questions about voting or the voting process, and its whole purpose is to help Americans vote. It's run by a totally non partisan group, and is staffed by lawyers from all around the country, and is a great resource for helping keep elections fair. The phone lines are live now, and will be all through election day." You know, in case you'd like to call up and ask them if it's true that naturalized citizens can't vote, ASSHAT.

Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D isn't playing anywhere near you?

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Oh right, animation bad, I forgot.

[irishmastermind.livejournal.com]

Oh, Daniel! I think that poster will haunt me for a long time to come.

Plotwise, I do the same thing. I know the places it's going, but not the route.

[girlsetsfire345.livejournal.com]

I looked at the Equus poster, and I thought, "Wow, those are the ugliest man-nipples I have ever seen. Wait....WAIT....GOOD LORD!" Took me a while to get it. We're good now.

[purpleivey.livejournal.com]

hey, if you go see marie antionette, please let us know if it'd good (as if we could stop you from posting about it! : ) I've been wanting to see it, but I'm hearing mixed reviews.

[3hours.livejournal.com]

i downloaded it and watched it two days ago and... it was entertaining. i LOVED the soundtrack - whoever decided to pair marie antoinette with punk music deserves cookies. i was miffed that it didn't delve deeper though, it's a superficial movie, but it shows just how removed from the real world these people were, and how even though marie was spoiled beyond words, she had a pretty rough time.

i'd see it again, but i dunno if i'd pay for it.

[arielchan.livejournal.com]

You know, growing up my mom and I went to movies about once every 2 months or so. In my entire childhood, my dad went to TWO movies with us: A Goofy Movie, and Dennis the Menace.

Two years ago, I went to a party, and my parents got bored and went to see Elf. They loved it. And suddenly my dad, who has been a bit wowed by computer animation since it started, wants to go to the movies ALL THE TIME. Especially animated movies. He still hasn't seen Finding Nemo, but he and my mom went to see Over the Hedge, Cars, Home on the Range, AND Open Season.

I came home tonight, and my Dad had bought both the Over the Hedge DVD and the Hammy-the-Squirrel minimovie. And after the previews, he wants to see Flushed Away. My dad is SIXTY TWO.

Mom: We're going to the movies tomorrow.
Dad: Flushed Away?
Mom: No, The Prestige.
Dad: What's that?
Me: It's about magicians. Lots of cool actors.
Dad: I'll pass.

So, next on his list are Flushed Away and Happy Feet, to be followed (I'm sure) by anything else animated that comes out. In fact, he wants to rent Shrek and Shrek II so that he can see the third one when it comes out.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The only movie my dad ever saw in the theater with me was A League of Their Own, and he was coaching my softball team at the time (big mistake). My stepfather will actually go to things once in a while. Especially if they're about war.

(You know, I heard Hugh Jackman also did a voice for Happy Feet.)

[brermatt.livejournal.com]

You left out the possibility of seeing the Santa Clause 3.

Although you probably left it out for good reason.

I took my son to see it tonight. There were a few laughs, but most of the time, I just tried to stay awake.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Mostly because I would spend the entire movie trying to figure out the quickest way to kill myself. I'm 27 and she's 53; there's no reason in hell we should have to put ourselves through SC3 if there aren't even any young children with us.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

The last word of the last Harry Potter book is going to be 'Snape-tacular'.

[meandstuff.livejournal.com]

On the IMDB boards a while back, they had a contest on what the final sentence of Book 7 would be if the last word were 'scar'. My favourite was along the lines of "The End. P.S: When you make the movie of this, please find a role for Jeremy Irons. You know the one, in The Lion King, he played the uncle, Scar."

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Doogie Howser M.D. likes guys?

"How I Met Your Father"

Man the jokes just write themselves.

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

Internet High Five.

Legendary.

[count-01.livejournal.com]

I may be way out on a limb here, but you've read a lot of Jimmy Joyce books, haven't you?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I've read none, actually--why?

[ter369.livejournal.com]

So it was a big thing for me to finally realize what the last paragraph of this story should be, because it was like I'd poured the foundation for the story: I knew exactly what I would be building on.

That may be more important than having written 6k words by November 4th in a NaNo month. V.g.!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I kind of want to get to 50,000 words of something just to say that I did, but if I was happy with the story and it was under the limit, I'd say to hell with it. But I envisioned it as novel-length (I just hate using the word "novel" if it isn't published yet, because I feel so pretentious), so I can't imagine it wouldn't go over. In a way, I guess NaNo is a way of trying to keep myself focused on a single story for a month, which is a challenge for me. "Finish things," and all that.

[londonsparrow.livejournal.com]

I, for one, would be very interested to hear what you would say about Marie Antoinette. At the very least, it's superbly gorgeous to look at (by far the most beautiful costuming I've ever seen), so I'm sure it wouldn't be a hardship for anyone to sit through.

Ah, NaNoWriMo. How I've never completed you...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, I love the book and I have a large collection of movie stills (costuuuuuumes), so I have a feeling that I'm going to like it. Not that it won't surprise me in any way, but... I have a pretty good feel for what it's going to be like, as opposed to my mother, who's probably going to sit down and be like, "BOW WOW WHAT?"

[sweetle.livejournal.com]

The Neil Patrick Harris thing, I think, is because of this (http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/gays/overzealous-publicist-may-have-inned-neil-patrick-harris-211785.php).

OMG I finally saw The Prestige this week and it is MADE OF AWESOME. That is all.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

IT SO IS.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Neil Patrick Harris says he is gay. Wait, this is news?

My mind, she is blown. I had no idea. Was the "wait, this is news" meant in the Lance Bass "come on, it was totally obvious" way, or in a Anderson Cooper open secret type way? Either way, I was clueless.

Also, I wanna see The Prestige dammit.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Apparently it was an open secret; I forget when I first heard, but it was probably about the time he was in that revival of Cabaret.

[princessstarr.livejournal.com]

Neil came out of the closet? Good for him.

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

I still want to hear him as Mark in Rent.

This is totally going to change how I view Barney on How I Met Your Mother tho.

[msilverstar]

Great links, I'll repost that phone number, thank you!

[megmatthews20.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that Flushed Away is actually Computer Animation made to look like claymation. They had to do it with CGI or they couldn't have been as elaborate with settings etc.

I'm kinda bummed about NaNoWriMo because I just finished my 29000 word screenplay on October 31st, and all the stories I have lined up next are not novel length... :(

Ah well, maybe I'll write a short story, and it can be my own national novelette writing month...or something.

*Dances in anticipation of final Potter book* I'm sure I won't be able to see the final pages through my tears. :p

cheers!

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

*scrolling down*
"Man, what is up with Dan's pelvic bo--OH MY GOD!"

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

My reaction exactly.

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

I'm really interested to see what you think of Marie Antoinette. It's defintely one of those movies you either love or hate, but I loved it, and I'm a History minor. ^_^

[yuki-onna.livejournal.com]

OT...my first major press novel just came out...I wonder if you'd be willing to link to it in your next linklist? There Amazon link is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553384031/ref=cm_plog_item_link/103-9887894-8365423

And it's a big, sprawling series of interconnected fairy tales, with all manner of monsters and gods and pirates, many, many pirates. I think you'd probably like it.

Equus

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

Coolest poster I ever saw. D'you think the existence of it is enough to put ut up on clairvoyant_wank?

Re: Equus

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

In the Potter fandom? Hell yes.

[elisa0984.livejournal.com]

"It was never my intent to make a lot of money off this," he said. "If it went over $100 or so, we were going to donate it to charity."

*brain explodes* My god the contradictions are screaming out at me.

In BPAL news, Glitter has been resurected for until December along with a few others.

[edda.livejournal.com]

That Equus link...let's just say I'm on dialup and it's slow and loads from the top down and for like 30 seconds I was yelling "OH GOD HIS NIPPLES WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS NIPPLES MAKE IT STOP AIIIIGGGH!!"

Then it finished loading and I was OK. I gotta get broadband before I have a stroke.

[maliekai.livejournal.com]

But The Departed is SO GOOD. Although... yeah, my mom wouldn't be up for that either. Have you seen it yet?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Nope, not yet. I'll probably end up seeing it on DVD.

[bluekermit.livejournal.com]

*sigh of relief* And our faith in Humanity is now tinily restored again (re: prayers on Ebay)...

[sammytagal.livejournal.com]

OMG I HELPED PUT THAT TOMBSTONE TOGETHER FOR THE ED MUSEUM!!!!!

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/cspstory.cfm?id_no=14679&vkey=43891710827237682b79247e293a651b2bf2b714-0F0B715B-BFB3-869C-27D21EA9F95DF398104733499

That's the local newspaper article. I get to be the one in the bright yellow shirt. :)
I can't believe it made the national news.